Hot beverages, cold beverages as well as soups are frequently purchased as take out items. For example, coffee, tea, iced coffee, and sodas are frequently served in disposable paper or plastic cups so that they can be taken with a consumer along his or her travels. While some cups are provided with a lid to cover the cup, such lids tend to become dislodged from the cup. Some cups also have drinking ports that leak or slits in the lid to receive straws that also leak thus creating the potential for spilling the hot or cold beverage from the cup.
In addition, iced beverages, such as iced coffee and soda often cause beads of water to form on the outside of the cup as the ice inside the cup melts. The customer carrying the cup, unless protected, ends up with wet hands, which is uncomfortable and messy for the customer, especially if they are dressed in a suit or dress on their way to work.
Some beverage cups, usually hot beverage cups, are provided with a sleeve that surrounds a portion of the cup to provide a barrier between the cup and the consumer's hand to protect the consumer's hand from the heat created by the hot beverage. Some hot beverage cup sleeves are insulated to better protect the user's hand from heat. Furthermore, some hot beverage cup sleeves include handles to facilitate carrying the cup without the consumer's hand grasping the cup or the sleeve.
However, the problem of leaking from the lid of a cup or the lid coming dislodged from the cup causing a spill still exists. In addition. the problem of protecting the user's hands from the sweat formed on the outside of the cup as ice melts in iced coffee or soda also still exists. This disclosure describes an improvement over these prior art technologies that directly deal with both these problems.